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Love in Family

Over the weekend, we had an extended family meeting with my local sisters, all of our kids, my parents, my grandmother, my sister Michelle, and her family who joined us via Facetime. My parents have been saving for many years to take all of us on a trip of a lifetime together. This year, all twenty one of us will be making our way across the Atlantic together on a pilgrimage of sorts to visit Israel, where the story of our faith is rooted. It’s a humbling legacy gift, birthed from a dream, built on much sacrifice and hard work.

It’s an experience that will live on in our family for generations to come.

Before our first meeting to discuss our trip plans, we got a note from my parents saying that my Grandma Hyde wanted to attend the meeting because she had “a gift of a lifetime” to share with us. …

Friday was a half day at school for our kids, going into a long weekend. Oaks had been asking me for weeks if we could host a “Battle Royale” that day out in the Army Corp land. I’d been half-heartedly agreeing along the way, not really knowing for sure what I was getting myself into. As the day grew closer, the details of his plan began to emerge and I realized he’d been seriously scheming with some kids at school for a legit “battle”. It included helium balloons, airsoft guns, and my jeep as “the battle bus”. They’d printed “battle maps” of the area from Google and drawn out all their different stations including Lucky Landing, Lonely Lodge, Wailing Woods, and many more.

While their ideas weren’t developed with real-life limitations in mind, their strategy and planning was impressive.

Every month at GNO I talk about the incredible importance of going below our “perfectly curated” social media feeds to the real stories that weave us all together as human sisters. The places behind the filtered scenes where real life happens. On a day like today, where your feed is likely bubbling over the top with perfect pictures of longevity, love, and romance, it leaves me no doubt that you’re likely feeling a little “less than”. Like everyone else has a love story that is surely less messy than yours. You know how I know?

Because I feel it too.

It’s easy to look at the declarations of love and best friendship infiltrating your newsfeed and begin to believe that even if they struggle, it’s not as hard, messy, or difficult as yours. Like somehow they hit the magic lottery. Their kids don’t struggle at school, or ever fight at home. They …

As we were planning out the weekly content for this month, based around bravery, Megan and I were brainstorming all the places women have to practice courage. As I was thinking through all of the areas of my life that require courage, “parenting” quickly bubbled to the top. It’s funny, because when the boys were younger, parenting required more endurance. Now that they’re entering their teenage years, I’m learning that love in parenting requires huge amounts of courage.

We took this picture at the beach in 2016.

The rest of the family had to leave but that year, I had a little more space in my schedule, and the boys really wanted to stay longer. So the three of us rented a tiny little car and cheap little (upstairs) motel room across the street from the water at The Sunshine Inn. We decided we would go on an “adventure”. As an Enneagram …

On Monday, this photo came flying in like a blast from the past. My friend Courtney was apparently archiving some old photos to digital format and paused long enough to send me on this trip down memory lane. It’s funny how photos remind you of moments you’d likely never think of again, but as soon as I saw it, I remember that night like it was yesterday. . It was Halloween 2007 and we were (OBVIOUSLY) expecting Oaks to arrive any day. Outside of the fact that our little golfer doesn’t look very happy to be there, we were doing pretty good. How crazy is it that I remember that one of my biggest challenges at that time was blow drying my hair? (Oh, how life has changed!) It was exhausting. My arms were already tired from carrying that 15 month old chunky monkey around and by the time I finished, my …

My sister Michelle sent us this picture in a group text last night. Like an old song playing on the radio, it instantly brought back a flood of memories. My mom, sisters and I, were hosting a baby shower for Kim, who was expecting her first daughter, Sophia. (Who turned 16 yesterday!) We were all SO young. Mom was still living in Louisiana. Heather had just graduated from college. Michelle already had her own family of three kids and had moved to Florida. It was just a few months before I met Scott. That dining room we were standing in, was my very first house, furnished with garage sale purchases, hand-me-downs and a lovely set of bunny ears on my TV set, just in case someone wanted to come over to watch TV.